Week of September 17th:I was away for a full week of new job training, but fit in some runs anyway!Tuesday: 6 mile tempo run/8:35 pace along Hermosa/Manhattan Beaches. More humid than I’m used to, but worth the view:

Thursday, September 13, 2012

So we moved to CA in mid-February. I’m sure I spent about a month moping around feeling sorry for my unemployed self and also getting annoyed that I was not finding job postings for what I went to grad school for. For the last 4 months worked part-time job as a behavior therapist and for the last 3 months or so I have also been working in a running store.

I’ve done two weeks of the hundred pushups program. Week 3 is a little delayed, because I am weak and because I didn’t feel like doing pushups after track the other night, so I might go back and repeat the last day of week 2 and properly start Week 3 at the beginning of next week.

Since we’re half-through this week, I might as well post on that too.

Week of September 10th:Tuesday: AM- 3 miles of trail run/walk in my Mizuno trail shoes for some running store footage.

Tuesday PM- Trackwork: 7x800m (90 sec rest). Goal was 3:47, I ran them in 3:39-3:42. It would have been 8, but we were kicked off the track during the 6th one for a college soccer game, and we were being given the hairy eyeball during the 7th. I didn’t want to be yelled at. Total: 4.9 miles.Wednesday- 5.36 mi fun run from the running store at night/avg pace 9:17

Will probably run or bike tomorrow morning and I haven’t decided what I’m doing this weekend yet. Our new couch is being delivered and the actual delivery time will determine my physical activity. I hate delivery windows. Also, why isn’t there a weeknight delivery option for when people are actually home?

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I’m currently debating whether to do this Leona Valley trail race. It’s only 2 weeks away. I mentioned this one back before we moved to CA in this post, and part of it is on the Pacific Crest Trail. It wouldn’t be a “race” for me so much as a fast hike/slower run because there is a fair amount of elevation change. It would be good practice for the upcoming Griffith Park Trail half marathon in mid-November, though. Actually, this elevation might be worse than the Griffith Park race.

All I have on my calendar right now is a [road] half marathon on November 4th, and the trail half on November 17th (it was a free entry!). Apparently last month’s cross country races weren’t enough to satisfy the race itch.

Monday, September 3, 2012

I was wrong in my last post…I had 10 weeks until my next half marathon, not 9.

Last week…or almost 2 weeks ago now… (Let’s call it T-11 weeks): I ran an easy 3 miles, ran my 5 tempo miles ending with a brisk uphill walk, and ran 13.5 miles for my long run. I also hiked 6ish miles. Long dog walks not included. Totals: just under 22 miles of running, 6 miles of hiking.

This past week (T-10 weeks): Tuesday I did a hilly 4 mile progression run (started at 9:20 pace, finished at 8:08 pace). Thursday I did a 5 mile not-quite-tempo pace run, with a mile long climb in it (avg pace 9:02, ranged from 1st mile at 9:35 to as fast as 8:33).Saturday: shorter long run: 8.11 miles, avg pace in the low9:20s. This is where I want my long runs to be again if I’m looking at the Run Less Run Faster plan (HMP + :20 or HMP + :30). Doing my long runs with the running group this summer, I just enjoyed the runs and was social – which meant running anywhere from a 9:30 pace to a 10:30 pace depending on who I was running with and how much we were talking.Total: 18.07 mi.

In addition to “running” to prepare for this next half marathon, I am taking on the 100 pushup challenge (Dan is too!) I I’m pretty sure that being less than a year out from 30 I’ve probably passed my peak for muscle mass. I read somewhere that you lose 5lb of muscle mass every decade from 25-35. So if that’s the case, I began losing muscle mass before I started running. I was doomed from the start.

Back to the pushups. They require little: a floor and yourself. So I figure I should learn how to do them well. Enter the 100 pushup training program. In 6 weeks, they claim I’ll be capable of doing 100 pushups. Bring it. I’m starting off pretty low, being able to complete 13 “good form” pushups consecutively before giving up.

And while I was on that site, I found 200 squats (I intentionally overlooked the programs for situps and pullups, but I may come back to dips). I have way more lower body strength than upper body strength, so I hoped this would be easier than the pushups, yet still a challenge. I’m all for increased leg strength if it will help me in the final stretch of a race. I remember doing at least that many plus other leg exercises when I was going to boot camp classes last year. I read the intro… “most of you reading this won’t be able to manage 20 squats. Actually, I'm sure many of you can't even do 10.” Challenge accepted. I did the initial test for this one and found myself at 60 nice deep squats with no rests.

I was feeling so proud. Until the next morning. And Saturday morning. Oh, yep, and Sunday morning my leg muscles were still a little tight (hamstrings) and sore (around the knees). Now that I have had a good week and a half to recover from the initial exhaustion test, I think I’ll begin that program, and plan accordingly around track workouts so I have muscle left to run them fast.

“How many pushups can you do? …I guess you can only do one, really.” “Yeah, one is all you need.”